முதுமொழிக்காஞ்சி கூறும் ஒழுக்கம் - ஒரு தத்துவவியல் நோக்கு

Abstract

The work, Muthumozhikkānji was comprised in the collection of eighteen lesser works (patiṇ̱eṇkḹḻkkaṇakkunūlkal) emerged in the post Sangam period (period for moral works). It could not be denied the fact that influence of Jainism and Buddhism in the period in which Mudhumozhikkānji emerged in Tamil Nadu. Sangam literature reveals the influence of Vedic culture, a part of Hinduism, among Tamils in the Sangam period. It is worthy to note that Tamils' independent and unique ethical values had not only been articulated by Sangam literature and but also been narrated by the post-Sangam period literature. In this background, ethical views and ideas of Mudhumozhikānji get momentum. This research aims to determine what religious and philosophical ideas have influenced the ethics of Muthumozhikkānji in the period in which many religious-philosophical schools of thought spread in Tamil Nadu. From the beginning, there is a continuous process of dialectic logic, spiritualism vs. materialism as thesis and anti-thesis in Indian philosophical thoughts. To discover what is the position of Muthumozhikkānji on this dialectic process is another significant objective of the research. Apart of this, identifying proto-Vedic and anti-Vedic ideas and finding hierarchical differences between domestic life and ascetic life in Muthumozhikkānji are also objectives of this study. Interestingly, Muthumozhikkānji narrates more materialistic ideas than spiritual ones, and it articulates the significant ethical virtues of Sangam Tamils and utters the influence of Buddhism in the text. It is noteworthy that Muthumozhikkānji narrates ethical thoughts and ideas based on reason and real, which existed in the post Sangam period. It could be found that Muthumozhikkānji tries to reduce hierarchical differences and gaps between domestic and ascetic life. More than one different edition of muthumozhikkānji, literary sources of ethics, Sangam and Post -Sangam literature, Indian Philosophical sources, and online sources were used in this study